Unrememberance
by letthesongtakeflight
Summary: Before he was the Huntsman, he was a prince.


**Author's note:** This was written for the Marvel Shipping Games, for the prompt Jane/Thor Snow White and the Huntsman crossover. Hope you enjoy ^.^

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing recognisable.

**Warning: **Major character on screen death, description of violence and blood.

Also, slight OOC, as Odin is based more of Norse mythology!Odin than MCU!Odin.

* * *

"To Midgard, Heimdall, if you please," the crown prince of Asgard said as he walked into the Observatory.

"To see your mortal maiden again?" Heimdall said. If he disapproved or judged Thor in any way, he did not show it.

Thor gave the gatekeeper a half-smile. "Do not tell father."

Heimdall nodded in compliance and pushed his sword into the key hole, opening the Bifrost. Thor stepped into the portal, there was a head-spinning rush of sound and colour and matter, and his feet landed on earth. He was in a forest, the canopy above him too thick to let the moonlight in. Branches scratched at him as he moved through the wood, finding his way to a well-trodden path.

As the wood thinned into grassland, a village came into view. Windows winked with firelight. Smoke, grey on a black sky, coiled from the chimneys. Thor stopped just out of sight of the village entrance, waiting. The sky was free of clouds tonight, the sliver of moon barely gave off any light, and the stars were exceptionally bright. Jane would be pleased, Thor thought.

For many months now he had been coming to Midgard to meet with her in secret. Despite being a mortal with a life that lasted only a blink of the Asgardian eye, she was brimming with curiosity and wonder, eager to drink in all knowledge. She especially loved the stars; Thor would point out to her the constellations and tell her the stories behind each: Dain the deer, Ratatosk the squirrel, and on particularly clear nights like this one, even the base of Yggdrasil and Nidhogg, the serpent that curled around its base, were visible.

Thor shifted uncomfortably. He had been waiting for far too long, and Jane was never late. Something must be wrong. He walked closer to the settlement of ramshackle wooden houses and thatched roofs, as close as he could without being seen by the villagers. Everything seemed to be in place, but his instincts, warriors instincts trained to hone in on violence and battle, told him that something was amiss.

A scream sliced through the still air. "Jane!" Thor turned to the direction it came from and ran towards it, into the forest. He weaved between trees as fast as he could. From between gaps he could see Jane leaning against a tree, breathing hard. Her hands were over her stomach, her fingers red with the blood that spilled from within. Two men stood next to her, one of them held a dagger, dripping with fresh blood.

One of them snarled at Jane. "No better than you deserve, for being a witch."

"I'm not..." Jane protested between gasps.

"Liar!" The man backhanded her across the face and she cried out again. "It's not natural for a woman to know so much."

With a roar of fury, Thor pushed his way into the clearing and tackled the man on to the ground. He stuffed his face into the dirt, pulling his arms back until he heard the crack of broken bone. The other villager came at Thor with a drawn knife, but the Asgardian grabbed the hilt of the knife and pushed it into the man's chest. He then turned back to his first opponent, flipping him onto his back. "How dare you treat her that way? How dare you?" He delivered two hard punches to the man's temple, and his head lolled back, dead.

The assailants both killed, Thor hurried to his lover's side. "Jane!"

She made a move towards him, but couldn't support her own weight and crumpled to the floor. He knelt next to her, cradling her frail body in his strong arms. Her face was too pale from blood loss, and a single glance at the blood over the ground and her hands told him that it was too late for him to do anything.

"I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry," he told her, pushing her hair back from her face.

She looked up at him, brown eyes too wide and too scared. Teardrops glistened at their corners like diamonds. "You came, you saved me."

His vision blurred from his tears and he rubbed them away brusquely with the back of his hand. This was the last chance he had to see her, he couldn't waste that by allowing tears to blind him. "I was too late, forgive me."

She smiled weakly. "What haven't I forgiven you for?" Her body convulsed uncontrollably for a moment and Thor held her closer, as though by doing so he could take her pain into his own body. "Stay with me," she begged when the spasms subsided.

He nodded, caressing her face gently, trying to commit all its gentleness, all its beauty, all its intelligence, to memory enough to last him the several millennia he had left. "Of course, my love, of course."

"Thank you." He could barely hear her words, she was so weak. She closed her eyes and turned towards him. Her breathing slowly grew shallow, and eventually subsided altogether. The sound that came from Thor's throat was a guttural howl of pure grief. He bent over his lover's body, a sobbing, moaning mess.

He did not know how long he was there, time seemed to have stood still at the perfect darkness in which she died. But eventually the sun came up, and in the midst of the pale morning light, a blaze shot from the heavens. Thor looked up, and saw the King of Asgard step towards him.

"Thor," Odin stood before him, mighty and regal in all his Asgardian finery. "Heimdall has told me all that he knows about your... affair, with the mortal, and I have come because I know that it has come to an end."

"Whatever punishment you can give, father, cannot be worse than this," the prince replied in a voice cracked from crying.

Odin's expression softened. In a gentler voice, he said, "I do not condone your actions, but even I cannot say that I am untouched. I can give her a second life, a second chance, but –" he added at Thor's hopeful expression, "you must accept punishment for your actions these past months."

"Yes, I accept," Thor said immediately.

A flicker of regret and sadness appeared in Odin's eyes, but it lasted no more than a second. "Very well," he said heavily. "You, Thor Odinson, will live on Earth as a mortal with no memory of Asgard, or your birthright. All that you will carry with you is your grief from this moment. When you have overcome it, and thus proven yourself to be able to overlook a personal loss, Asgard will be returned to you."

The prince looked at his father with recognition for the last time. "So be it."

* * *

"Another drink," the man said to the bartender. He sat at the bar, broad, well-muscled shoulders hunched up. His greasy blond hair, tied back from his face, looked as though it hadn't been washed in months.

"You've 'ad way more than you should already, mate," the bartender said, though he set down another pint for the customer. He hadn't seen this man before, and he knew every man in the town, as well as two towns over. Word was that he was a wanderer, a mercenary of sorts.

The Huntsman sighed heavily, a sound that carried with it the griefs of a hundred lifetimes. "I can't even remember her face."


End file.
